title: The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community response to warming and grazing differs between soil and roots on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.
abstract: Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form symbiotic associations with most plant species in terrestrial ecosystems, and are affected by environmental variations. To reveal the impact of disturbance on an AM fungal community under future global warming, we examined the abundance and community composition of AM fungi in both soil and mixed roots in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Warming and grazing had no significant effect on AM root colonization, spore density and extraradical hyphal density. A total of 65 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of AM fungi were identified from soil and roots using molecular techniques. AM fungal OTU richness was higher in soil (54 OTUs) than in roots (34 OTUs), and some AM fungi that differed between soil and roots, showed significantly biased occurrence to warming or grazing. Warming and grazing did not significantly affect AM fungal OTU richness in soil, but warming with grazing significantly increased AM fungal OTU richness in roots compared to the grazing-only treatment. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis showed that the AM fungal community composition was significantly different between soil and roots, and was significantly affected by grazing in roots, whereas in soil it was significantly affected by warming and plant species richness. The results suggest that the AM fungal community responds differently to warming and grazing in soil compared with roots. This study provides insights into the role of AM fungi under global environmental change scenarios in alpine meadows of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xinhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Yongchan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yichao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rui
authors.forename: Shiping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liang-Dong
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D058448:Biota / Q000502:physiology*; D057232:Global Warming; D060434:Herbivory; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011157:Population Dynamics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000502:physiology; D018609:Tibet